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Tag: personal

belated birthday wish

Last sunday was my Nanay’s 56th birthday. I remember stories of her walking 6 kilometers just to get to school. She was in elementary when she would walk really early in the morning so that they can get to class two hours later. Going home was even worse because unlike the early trip, you travel when it was dark and get to school when the sun was up, this time you walk through bamboo thickets and every step you take brings you closer to a more darker place. Streetlights weren’t popular back then and torches were out of their budget. She’s come a long way from walking to school. She still walks to get to work mind you but now she has a Ph.D. in Mathematics and is the Vice Chancellor for Academic Affairs in one of the most prestigious universities in the Philippines. Please pray for her because there has been rumors of certain persons in “power” at the university that have been included in a list of the next people to be kidnapped. The President of the University has implemented some security measures as a response to the declared threat which I can’t detail in this post. Nevertheless, […]

Babies, Papers, Brakes, Cousins and Bats

Babies So yes, we are pregnant and yes it was planned. We had the chance to visit the OB-GYN today and found out that our bundle of joy 2.0 is now on its tenth gestational week. So as of today the baby is 3 inches long and is probably happily floating inside her mama’s uterus, causing mayhem on marchesa’s olfactory and somatic systems. After going to the OB, Emma and I got dropped off because marchesa needed to have her similitude imprinted onto plastic courtesy of the NJ DMV (i know you want to look that word up, go ahead, this blog post will still be here by the time you come back). Papers While the wifey was gone, I had to work from home and deal with my ever present blogs related issues. Well, the two week headache has finally been resolved, the other one will never ever be resolved and the week old headache .. we’ll see by tomorrow. With all that work stuff going on, emma was in the other room making paper crafts, painting, origami, using all of marchesa’s sticker collection and watching noggin all at once. from time to time she would go to my […]

How do you manage grief?

It was so ironic when I got the news of my Lola’s death. I was standing in front of the congregation playing for Praise and Worship. Kuya Cliff was segueing from the first to the 2nd song when I felt my phone vibrate. The first was a text message from my sister Milfe, a second later was a phone call from my sister Zen. When I saw my sister’s number I knew then and there that my Lola was gone.Ironically, the song that we started singing was "O Praise Him" by the David Crowder Band. After praise and worship I went down to the kids room to tell Marchesa what happened. She kind off already knew because when I didn’t pick up my phone my sister started calling hers. I refrained from calling back because I knew what was going to happen, they are going to tell me the same thing I already knew. So I waited to call until we got home in Plainsboro, where I can get my privacy. We were still in South Jersey  when I started writing the first blog about my Lola. The point where I envisioned of her being with my Lolo after 10 […]

Goodbye Lola Mildred

It’s been 4 months since I’ve seen you. A mere shell of what you used to be. I remember when you used to take care of me, put up with my craziness. You were one of the reasons why I knew how to read at a very young age. You saved word puzzles for me from Liwayway magazine and wouldn’t let anyone use it because you know that everytime we come and visit i’d always bury my head and play with those things. There was never a time that I’ve seen you not reading a book. One time I asked you what you were reading, as you were showing the book to me, a picture of Lolo fell, you reached for it and jokingly said … oops it’s my boyfriend. I’m sure he’s very happy that you are with him after over 10 years of being apart from each other. What a reunion that must be. I’m sorry I couldn’t be by your side during those times that you needed someone. I’m happy you got the chance to meet my wife and my daughter, know that Emma has probably as much spunk as you when you were growing up. I […]

R.I.P. Cresencio Quitat

He was my ninong. He worked for my dad when my dad was the head of the Audio Visual department at Mindanao State University. I just got word that he died of a heart attack and will be buried January 12.

Emma’s Picture of the Week

I was just going through some old pictures and this caught my eye. She was so young then. She just turned 1 when this picture was taken. How quickly they grow up.   Date Taken: July 16, 2006

a man and his swissknife

When we went home to the Philippines, we had the chance to spend time with my Dad at his farm. This might sound normal to most people since Filipinos have been in one way or another, have been farming to sustain themselves. My Grandfather was a farmer and so was his father before him and so was my Great-Great-Grand Father. Its just that my dad has a Ph.D. in Physics and spent most of his life teaching at the most prestigious university in the southern philippines. When he retired 3 years ago he became president of the corporate arm of Arise Christian Ministries, a local non profit that supports outreach programs to a nearby tribe. I think it was 2 years ago when he decided to follow his dad’s footsteps and live off the land. There were a lot of challenges. He didn’t have transportation to move his harvest from the farm to the city, no electricity to help preserve the harvest, among other things. When we went home to the Philippines last october, I tried getting him some things that he can use for his farm. A self crank lamp/radio, a handheld GPS device and a swiss knife. He […]

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